


I Found

by fiendingforthesunshine



Series: From Eden (Bucky/Natasha) [2]
Category: The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe, Crimes & Criminals, Gen, Kidnapping, Minor Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-05
Updated: 2015-07-05
Packaged: 2018-04-07 19:48:20
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,283
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4275771
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fiendingforthesunshine/pseuds/fiendingforthesunshine
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Bucky has always been a thief. </p>
<p>Prequel to the story in this series titled 'From Eden'</p>
<p>Inspired and written to match the music video of Amber Run's song 'I Found' except with Bucky, Natasha and Alexander Pierce as the characters.</p>
            </blockquote>





	I Found

**Author's Note:**

> You don't need to have seen the music video to know what's going on but honestly the music video is probably better at telling the story.
> 
> I also don't know how to link stuff on this website so I'm trusting all of you to go out on your own into the wilderness of youtube to find this video. Amber Run - I Found.
> 
> Hope you enjoy this story!

Bucky flicked his eyes back and forth between the road and the GPS that was set for their next destination. He didn’t let his eyes wander to the man in the passenger seat; there was no reason to give him any second glances. 

Alexander Pierce was one of the best extortionists of the time; Bucky was just a petty thief, picked up by the master. 

Bucky had been with Pierce for a few months now, bailed out of jail for reasons yet unknown after a job went south just outside of Palm Springs. Pierce had gotten all of the charges against Bucky dropped and… well… those things don’t come without a price. 

Bucky is paying off his debt to Pierce by driving him up and down the pacific coast and doing a fair amount of the dirty work while Pierce keeps all of the money. Pierce said he liked to do his work here because he liked the scenery, the ocean, the rolling hills, green meadows, and of course, the women. 

Bucky just wanted to do what he had to do, pay off his debt and maybe take a road trip back down the coast back to his little house in the desert. 

For the past few months Bucky has just been following Pierce around, his attack dog, so to speak. If people didn’t want to give their money to him, surely they’d give it to Bucky when he showed up with his array of guns and knives. So far, no one has actually gotten hurt but that’s mostly because Bucky is so imposing that it doesn’t take much to convince their… “clients” of the right choice. 

Pierce wasn’t one for kidnapping, always said it was too messy, but everyone reaches their breaking point and Pierce didn’t think he and Bucky were making enough money with their shakedowns and late night thievery. 

That is why Bucky was currently driving them to one of Pierce’s favorite type of victims, a woman, almost Bucky’s age and the daughter of a man who was very well off and most likely willing to give Pierce what he wanted when he realized she was gone. 

Bucky pulled off the main road in some unnamed town in Washington and started winding his way through the posh, upper-class neighborhood. Soon he pulled Pierce’s SUV into the driveway of the house he pointed to. 

Pierce hardly waited for the car to stop before he was getting out of the car and heading to the front door, Bucky turned off the ignition and followed. 

Pierce was almost done picking the lock by the time Bucky had reached the front door. Pierce had timetables and plans, order and precision for all his scores, which meant he wouldn’t be wasting time on things so simple as turning off the car and double-checking that everything they needed was there. It didn’t matter, Bucky had it anyway. 

The door opened without a squeak, slowing to a stop before it hit the wall and the only thing that disturbed the peace of the house was Bucky and Pierce walking in and turning on their flashlights. 

The daughter was spending the weekend alone in the house, home from visiting a friend on the other side of the country. Her parents would be returning from a gala in San Francisco tomorrow morning (to find their only daughter missing). 

Pierce seemed on edge tonight, after a quick sweep of the house entrance he headed straight for the stairs, keeping his feet light and pointing his flashlight straight ahead. Bucky looked around and followed up the stairs at a slower pace, taking in all the details of the living room and main hallway. 

When Bucky reached the top of the stairs he saw the older man looking into a room through a cracked door. The light was still on but there wasn’t any noise coming from the room, the daughter must’ve fallen asleep on accident… that would make their job easier. 

Bucky held out a washcloth and Pierce turned around, pulling a bottle out of his pocket. 

Bucky had been there when he bought it off some street merchant along the coastal highway. The merchant had said just a few drops of it would render someone awake but helpless, hallucinating and paralyzed, like chloroform but much more terrifying. 

Pierce pulled the top off with his teeth and let some of the solution drip onto the washcloth, closing off the bottle when he was done and nodding at Bucky. 

“You grab her legs, don’t let her get away.” 

Bucky nodded back, even though he would’ve rather run away screaming. 

The second Pierce pushed the door open the daughter woke up, fear in her eyes but she couldn’t move, there wouldn’t be enough time anyway, Pierce was already at her face, the washcloth over her mouth and nose while she struggled. 

Bucky grabbed her feet, she was kicking pretty hard but Bucky was much stronger and soon her muffled screams were silent, her eyes wide and face wet with tears, but her body unmoving. The solution worked fast and Bucky had no idea what she must be seeing, but she almost looked more terrified than before. 

Bucky drug his fingers through his hair, not noticing that Pierce had his hand out, waiting for the zip-tie to keep her from using her hands when hallucinations wore off.  
Pierce smacked Bucky’s side with his hand and Bucky jerked back to the present, handing over the zip-tie from his pocket and watching Pierce cinch her wrists together. He then picked her up in a fireman’s carry and left the room, leaving Bucky behind. 

Bucky looked down at the foot of the bed and saw a pair of black pants and a pair of shoes; they must belong to the daughter. She had been asleep in a t-shirt and pajama shorts, she’d be freezing when they got to the forest. Without thinking Bucky picked them up, if Bucky got in the car after Pierce the man probably wouldn’t even notice. He grabbed the shoes before he could tell himself otherwise. 

Bucky ran down the stairs, pulling their ransom note out of his hoodie pocket and gave the house one last glance before setting it on the hallway table. 

“We have your daughter. You have 72 hours. No police. No help. No bargains. Next contact will be 1100 tomorrow. Be ready.” 

Bucky slammed the door shut. 

\--

They drove through the night, down coast and into the forest. The roads soon lacked names and quickly after that they stopped being more than small gravel paths. Pierce drove this time, leaving Bucky to his own devices as he sat in the passenger seat, intentionally not looking back to see if the daughter had put her shoes on or not. Bucky had kept the pants with him, tucked into his hoodie pocket, he’d give them to her later, when they would stop to make the phone call to her parents. 

An hour or two after the sun rose up mountains they pulled to a stop and Bucky got out of his seat and walked around to the back. He opened the hatch and saw that the daughter was awake, and her shoes were on. 

Pierce either didn’t notice, or didn’t care, he opened the back of the vehicle the rest of the way and grabbed her, “Come on, get out. GET OUT! Let’s go! Kid, grab the bag from the backseat!” 

Bucky spared a glance at the girl and did what was asked of him. 

They were in a fairly scenic location but they had seen a few cars, Pierce didn’t seem to be in the mood to get caught today and neither was Bucky, he followed Pierce and their hostage down the road and into the forest. 

\--

Pierce made his first contact with their hostage’s parents while they were walking deep into the forest. He left Bucky standing by a tree near the path while he took the daughter off further down the road to use as leverage. 

Pierce was hard to read, everything always seemed like it was going bad for him so when he came back from the phone call and tossed the girl towards Bucky, Bucky left it alone. 

“We’ll make contact again tomorrow morning. It was smart to grab her shoes, kid. I’d hate to carry her sorry ass across the forest all day.” 

Bucky just nodded and kept walking. 

As the sun dipped behind the trees they found a place to settle down for the night. Pierce pushed the daughter against a tree as Bucky set up the fire and put their stuff down on the other side of the fire. 

Once Pierce settled and had left the daughter alone Bucky walked over, pulling the black pants he’d found on her floor out from his hoodie pocket. The daughter tried to scuffle away, closer to the tree but stopped when Bucky knelt down and showed her what he had. 

“It’s freezing in here at night, these should help,” Bucky said, setting them down and nodding at her.

“Um… Thank you. What’s your name? Can I ask that? Is that okay?” 

Bucky shrugged and brushed off some dirt from his knee, “Bucky. I’ve never done this before so, I guess it’s okay.” 

The daughter smiled at the ground, “I’m Natasha.”

Bucky smiled too.

A few minutes later she’d managed the pants on despite her zip-tied hands and the fire was going strong. 

Bucky spent the night pretending he wasn’t staring at the girl. She was pretty, he’d give her that, and she seemed nice but it wasn’t like she would even been thinking about him. Bucky’d been on the road for weeks now, he probably looked like he felt, dirty and dangerous. The daughter was probably busy thinking about getting free and going home though. 

Bucky spent the rest of his time hoping that Pierce could actually pull this off. Bucky wasn’t about to go back to jail for Pierce. 

\--

The sun woke them pretty early and after Pierce ordered Bucky to take the daughter, Natasha, further into the forest so she could use the bathroom, they all settled back to their respective areas of the camp. 

Pierce was smoothing his fingers around a sharp piece of wood he’d been whittling for the past week or so and checking his watch every five minutes. Bucky was leaning against a tree and Natasha was sitting where she’d been placed last night, trying to move her hands around in the zip-ties. 

A while later, maybe 30 minutes, Pierce stabbed his now even sharper knife of wood into the tree he was near and looked at Bucky, “I’m going to make a few calls, I’m taking the car out with me,” he dropped his knife in front of Bucky’s feet, who had now moved to sit down by his tree, across from Natasha, “Don’t let the girl try anything.” 

Bucky nodded and looked over at the knife as Pierce went off back through the forest they’d come in from. 

They sat in silence for as long as it took for them to stop hearing Pierce’s footsteps in the forest. Bucky glanced over at Natasha and picked up the knife. She backed away again but Bucky just grabbed her wrists and snapped the zip-ties with his knife. 

“You’ll be home soon, don’t worry. Either the cops will find us or Pierce will get his money and you’ll go home,” Bucky tugged his jacket off and helped Natasha put it on. 

Natasha gave Bucky a confused look as he sat down next to her, now in his t-shirt, but she pulled the jacket on anyway. 

“Won’t you go to jail if the cops find us?” She asked. 

Bucky shrugged, “Been to jail before… I’ll live.” 

They sat together like that for almost an hour, by Bucky’s watch. Her occasionally asking questions and Bucky asking questions back. Bucky thinks maybe he could’ve been like her, traveling the world and going to school. In a different life, a different time, maybe. 

They were caught up enough in their conversations together that neither of them hear Pierce coming back through the forest before it was too late. 

Once Pierce saw that Natasha no longer had her binds on and that Bucky was sitting so close his pace picked up. Bucky scrambled to his feet, “No! Pierce, it’s okay, she won’t run everything is fine!” 

“I knew I couldn’t trust you, you little weasel!” Pierce shoved Bucky out of the way, sending him stumbling across the leaves and dirt as he went straight for Natasha. Pierce grabbed her by the hair and took the bottle of drugs out of his jacket pocket, “We’re getting rid of her! Her parents won’t pay!” 

Bucky stood where he landed, eyes wide as Pierce went to open the bottle. 

Bucky dove forward.

He landed on top of Pierce and Natasha rolled away, standing up away from the fight as Bucky pressed his forearm against Pierce’s throat. 

Pierce brought his hands up and tried to put them in Bucky’s face as Bucky reached around to find the bottle Pierce had dropped. His free hand finally found and Bucky ripped the cap off with his teeth and began pouring the liquid over Pierce’s face. 

“No! Bucky! No! Don’t do this!” 

Bucky continued pouring the liquid until Pierce’s hands fell to the ground and his feet stopped kicking. 

Bucky jumped up to his feet and ran towards Natasha, turning her around, “Come on, Natasha, we have to go!” 

Bucky and Natasha ran through the forest as Pierce looked after them helplessly, the drugs taking full effect. 

Bucky had always been a thief.


End file.
